 Aloha! I'm Tim Apachele with Think Tech Hawaii and I'm here with Penelope and we're going to talk about the new bike share program called Beaky. Are you aware that there's gonna be a thousand bikes placed on the streets of Waikiki in downtown Honolulu here shortly? Well I've been hearing a bit. I didn't know the numbers but I can see where now there are a lot of bike lanes. And would you ever think that you're gonna get on one of these bikes and rent them either by the minute or by the week or by the month? You know now that you mentioned it I will think about it. I mean I hadn't thought of it but it does sound compelling because there are times where it's inconvenient to walk but too short to drive. Do you want a bike currently? No I don't. So what's the last time you've been on a bike? Oh it's been at least over 10 years but I know how to ride. That's a good thing. So would you think about riding either just to go on errands or do you think it would just be for pleasure? Both. I think the errands idea is great because of where I live and that how shall I say it eases the congestion of traffic especially with a lot of construction going on. And the idea for I've been in cities where you almost can't own a car here in this country. And I think Honolulu has gotten very congested so you know even though there's public the buses run really well where I live but to go one block or two blocks a bike would be better. Okay now here's the tough question. Bike Share Hawaii is not offering any helmets. Would that influence your decision whether you would get on a bike or not? No the helmet wouldn't cost as much as buying a new bike. Okay good point. So you don't have any concerns about other drivers and any kind of safety issues with getting on a bike in our congested streets at all? I've seen I've driven past the lanes. I don't see any accidents going on. I how shall I say as a driver I'm aware of those lanes and stay clear of them as much as possible. I you know I'm all in support for the idea that we want to help people be mobile and vehicle. Not everybody can afford a car either these days. Good point. Okay so last question is it's going to cost $15 for 30 minutes. How do you feel about that pricing? Well it sounds a little high right now. A little high. Yeah I mean 15 minutes for $15 that gets you one way someplace. 30 minutes for $15. How about an hour? Okay there you hear it. I'm Think Tech Hawaii with Penelope and Aloha. I I was riding for a while I voted for the bike lane so I gave up my car and got a bike and I rode to work every day for a couple years. I still ride. I noticed there's one going to be installed up the road here. I work right down here probably would help me get around town a little bit if I needed to run an errand or something. I'm also from Boston Massachusetts originally and they have that implemented as well as San Francisco. Right Boston and both of them have the programs. Now we just recently heard a criticism that the annual pass for local residents here in Honolulu is a hundred percent higher than what you would experience in Boston. About $180 here in Honolulu versus $90 in Boston. Were you aware of the pricing structure? I'm not actually that's surprising. For an annual pass now you could you could okay do you think that would be a deterrent from you from taking advantage of it? It would actually. Would you if you were to buy a pass would you buy a short term by the minute they're pricing them by the minute basically. Most likely by my the minute yeah short term but I would hope that they would come down on the annual pass it would make sense. Okay well that was this gentleman's argument that I just interviewed here on our show. What suggestions would you have for bike share Hawaii other than maybe the the pass price would you have any other suggestions? I wouldn't have suggestions for the program I'd have suggestions for drivers to be aware and allow Honolulu to be a more pedestrian friendly city. That's a good point one of the things that they mentioned before the putting these bikes on the street is that these bikes are going to have a traffic calming effect which is one way of saying they're going to kind of create a little more congestion on our streets. Do you think that's a wise thing to have happen? They said the same thing about the other cities that they implemented it in and so far it's been successful that piece of it. So you didn't see any increased people getting frustrated or any road rage occurring against bicyclists because they are now on the streets and I can't say that there was zero I think it's an evolutionary process but you have to start somewhere and if you don't start you don't know. How long ago when Boston did your program take place or that program take place? I think it's like four or five years now so that it's widespread. They had done pilot programs smaller right in in Boston proper but it's pretty big now Cambridge, Alston. Well the advantage here in Honolulu is that we have 12 months of great weather we have flat terrain we have a lot of tourists that also would take advantage of it. Would you consider yourself a commuter that would take advantage of it or just like you said maybe an occasional rider? More occasional rider but if I were in the right situation I would commute with it. So these bikes are going on the street right now today. When do you think you're gonna take advantage of it? I'll probably look up the cost see what the program is see what works out for my budget and then invest and then I'll have it whenever I need it. All right well I want to thank you for taking the time and sharing your interest with this new program and thanks for stopping. Thank you. I'm Tim Apachele with Utec Hawaii. I'm here with Daniel and Daniel I believe you're involved with a biking organization would you remind me which one that is? Yeah so I'm the advocacy director for Hawaii Bicycle and Lake so we're a nonprofit dedicated to getting more people on bikes and you're doing a great job. So what do you think about the the implementation of a thousand beaky bikes on the streets of Waikiki and here in downtown? Yeah so I think bike share is gonna be really good for mobility in the city it's gonna be good for our health you know because mobility can really try to help if you use active transportation walking biking. If you look to cities around the world in the US a lot of them bike share allows people to get on bikes that aren't currently on bikes and there's a lot of reasons that people might not bike. I mean of course safety is one of them but a lot of times it's convenience of I need a car to say get from my home to my workplace but to get to lunch or to run an errand or maybe to get to the beach from my place it would make sense to bike but it doesn't make sense for me to own one or it doesn't make sense for me to have one in a particular place so bike share basically it allows a lot more people to have the option to bike. Right now it's a question of to what segment of the marketplace is going to take advantage of this new program will it be commuters or would be commuters that would use it you know 12 months out of the year or is this program geared more to tourists which way do you think it's going to go? I think it's going to be both yeah certainly there's a lot of stations in Waikiki and obviously some of those are oriented towards our visitor community and I think great get them biking maybe they won't rent cars as much they'll reduce our congestion and parking congestion as well but I think a lot of commuters will use this well when you think about how many people work in Waikiki I mean part of the parking headache and complaints people have for what parking in Waikiki are people trying to get there to their jobs and they can't be spending $20 a day for for the parking rates they need another option so they take the bus or they take a bike and in cases bike theft is a major problem in Waikiki so we've heard from people that decide hey I'm not going to bike anymore I'm tired of getting my bike stolen I don't have a secure spot to lock it so maybe bike share will allow them to bike and not drive not pay that extra to drive and then I think for some people too tying it into their bus system so there are a lot of people that may be coming from Melania downtown and it doesn't make sense to take the bus or because they need their car for airings over the course of the day this way they can take the bus for that long-haul trip and then once they get to town they can take the bike around so I think we're going to find a lot of locals using it I know the pricing system has gotten some criticism I do think the $15 a month for the unlimited 30-minute rides is I think that's going to work for a lot of people yeah I mean basically that's the criticism is over the cost of an annual pass and the criticism is that it's a hundred percent greater than most cities on the mainland where $90 is usually the cost of an annual pass or $85 and in this case if you take $15 12 months you're you're sporting at $180 so I think that's that's where the criticism is kind of focused on is that local residents are not getting quite the same price break as in some other major cities in the in the country I mean certainly in terms of access we'd love it to be on the less expensive side I don't think the $15 is going to be prohibitive to many people we're looking forward to as Beaky moves forward trying to come up with auctions that might work for some of our lower income folks for that $15 might be a challenge but I think for the majority of people it's a reasonable transportation cost you think about our bus pass is $60 a month parking here in downtown I know can range from $100 to $200 so if you think about it in that landscape of how much it really costs to get around I think that if it allows people to conveniently get to the places they need to get it's a winner let me address one other point of criticism I'm hearing from my fellow neighbors is that the number of on-street parking stalls are being removed equates to about 25 or 30 stalls just in the you know in the areas because these stations are going on both the sidewalk and the street any any comments about some of the criticisms about parking spaces being removed out the street so I think the main thing to keep in mind this is a transportation option it's a public transportation amenity that's available to all not everyone will use it but many will and so that means even though it's displacing someone's car vehicle more people will use one of those stations those stations that might displace one or two parking spots will typically have 15 bicycles in them so if we look at that space as a valuable public commodity and we think about it it's it's designed largely for transportation purposes and this is a transportation amenity that's the potential to serve many more people than than a single parking spot does so I think we really need to think about it and we have city a relatively dense city in which it's practical to go around by a bike and coming up with easier ways for people to get around by bike and to tie that with our wonderful bus system I think is ultimately going to lead to a lot more transportation options and a lot more freedom on mobility well Daniel you're a great advocate for bicycling keep up the good work I'm Tim Apache with think tech away thank you for sharing your time with us thank you for your time